Jones Mays II started coding a couple of years ago when he took a computer science principles class. He鈥檚 now a senior at Houston鈥檚 Carnegie Vanguard High School, and he seems to have learned his lessons well, because he Apple鈥檚 Swift Student Challenge, a worldwide competition where winners get help and guidance from Apple engineers, along with coding resources to help with their projects. Mays鈥� app is called Ivy, and it uses machine learning and location information to detect invasive or dangerous plants.
鈥淚t detects the top five invasive vines in the United States. So the kudzu vine, the Chinese wisteria, Japanese honeysuckle and vines of that nature鈥� There will be a popup of what the vine actually is, for example, how it grows, what it looks like, and most importantly, how to safely remove it.鈥�
鈥淭he inspiration for Ivy is actually quite personal. My grandfather in Tunica, Mississippi, had a community garden, and in this garden he grew everything under the sun, from squash to cucumbers to watermelon and corn鈥� Unfortunately, he did die at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that鈥檚 why I really want to pay tribute to his legacy and the ways that he would help his community, through building Ivy.鈥�
鈥淚 actually secured a position at Code Wiz Houston and I鈥檒l be teaching the next generation of students what it means to learn about computer science, and what even is computer science鈥� Ultimately, I believe that computer science can provide some of these tools for socioeconomic economic mobility.鈥�